FIFA responds to Donald Trump's kneeling comments, urges 'tolerance'

President Donald Trump criticized both NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the U.S. Soccer Federation for allowing players to kneel during the national anthem, and revealed Saturday that he won't be watching U.S. Soccer following its decision to repeal its anthem policy for the USMNT and USWNT.

Now FIFA, world soccer's governing body, is urging tolerance in response to the President's words, and they even released a statement in response to Trump.

"FIFA strongly advocates for tolerance, mutual respect and common sense when such important matters are debated," FIFA said in a statement to The Associated Press (h/t ESPN). "FIFA has a zero-tolerance approach to incidents of all forms of discrimination in football, as outlined in the FIFA Statutes. We must all say no to racism and no to violence."

U.S. Soccer reversed its decision in a board meeting earlier this week as members voted in favor of repealing the anthem policy. However, the vote is believed to not have been unanimous.

In 2017, the U.S. Soccer Federation decided to enact a policy that forced players from both U.S. squads to stand during the national anthem after USWNT star Megan Rapinoe took a knee in solidarity with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his protest against racial injustice and police brutality.

A majority of Americans (52%) now support the right for NFL players to take a knee during the national anthem, according to a Yahoo poll, so it seems they would feel the same toward U.S. Soccer players. In 2018, only 35 percent of people were OK with players taking a knee, Yahoo added.

U.S. Soccer's decision comes after the death of George Floyd and the racial injustice protests that have swept the nation as a result.